WeAreFibro.org - The Social Support Network for People Living with Fibromyalgia

Blessings

      When I was first diagnosed with Fibromyalgia I had already endured so much pain physically and emotionally; the diagnosis at first was a new right for me to complain about everything because something really was wrong. I was in highschool at the time and having a constant pitty party got old really quick to more than one of my friends. I continued in the lifestyle until my cousin, Brad, was in an awful car accident. He was flown to a larger hospital in Loisville, KY where he stayed in the ICU for over six months. Brad was and still is paralyzed from his chest down. All he could move were his arms, hands, his fingers(barely), neck, head and face. Brad was 19 years old. My pity party seemed overwhelmingly ridiculous after all of this took place. It was this day that I looked at my fibromyalgia as a blessing and not a punishment. I may be in pain, I may forget, I may be constantly fatigued, I may be down for a few days, I may hate the looks and comments I get, I may be on medication for the rest of my life, and the list just seems to never end BUT I can walk. I am alive and there are much more illnesses out there that are far worse. I am so happy that fibromyalgia is not going to take my life, put me in a hospital, or end up causing me destruction to my body's tissues or vital organs. It is this that I am blessed with.

      Sunday a friend of mine that I go to church with died after a near life long battle with diabetes and gastroparesis. Ultimately she weighed less than eighty pounds and had a complication with a feeding treatment causing infection and kidney failure. The pain and suffering she went through is something I can't even imagine enduring and made my fibro seem like the common cold. When people around you are hurting and battleing life-threatening and terminal illness it just puts things in perspective for me. I am not going to die from my fibromyalgia; it is just something I have to deal with and I choose to deal with it with a smile on my face. Everyone needs to vent on occasion when things just get crazy and stressful in their life, but just because I am in chronic pain does not mean I have to be a chronic complainer.

      I would just encourage everyone to count their blessings as we come to the end of 2008. We are still here and through all of the changes (good and bad), new addtions to our familys as well as losses. Take a look at the good and try not to focus on the disappointments, sad, can't do, bad, and discouraging.

To everyone I wish a wonderful Holiday Season, A Merry Christmas, and of course A Happy New Year!!!